Keng Yaik and Gerakan
leadership should stop avoiding the issues and declare whether they endorse
or repudiate the shocking positions of the Gerakan think-tank, SEDAR, on
Islamic State, Chinese education and corruption

(Penang,
Friday): At Sunday’s DAP Penang State Convention, I had called on the Gerakan
President Datuk Seri Dr. Lim Keng Yaik and the Gerakan leadership to
apologise for the Gerakan think-tank’s attacks on Chinese mother-tongue
education as the source of social ills like high school dropout rate,
prostitution and criminal activities.

The Gerakan think-tank, Socio-Economic
Development and Research (SEDAR) made these allegations against Chinese
mother-tongue education in general and Chinese primary schools in particular
in a letter to Malaysiakini last week (4.9.03) under the tendentious
heading “DAP keen on exploiting race-based issues”:

It is almost a week and I am still waiting for
Keng Yaik and the Gerakan leadership to publicly apologise for the
unwarranted and unacceptable allegations against Chinese mother-tongue
education and to dissociate themselves from and repudiate the SEDAR stand.

In the letter in question, the Executive Director of SEDAR, Khoo Kay Peng
also sought to defend the Gerakan against my
criticisms for its support for the undemocratic, arbitrary and
unconstitutional “929 Declaration” by the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Dr.
Mahathir Mohamad at the Gerakan National Delegates Conference on Sept. 29,
2001 going against not only the 46-year founding nation-building principles
of Malaysia but also the 38-year founding principles of Gerakan by
advancing for the first time the thesis of the” plurality in definition”.

Khoo said Gerakan accepted “plurality
in definition: Muslims are welcomed to call this country an Islamic country
and the non-Muslims can also freely define Malaysia as a secular or
multi-religious country”.

A political party which accepts such “plurality in definition” about the
fundamental character of the Malaysian nation has neither backbone nor
political principles.

Barisan Nasional leaders have attacked PAS for being insincere and
hypocritical for its proposal to come out with two election manifestos –
with the state manifesto calling for an Islamic state while the national
manifesto will be silent on the issue.

What is the difference between PAS and Gerakan, when the former has two
manifestos with plurality of positions on the Islamic State, while the
Gerakan has a “two definition” stand on the fundamental character of the
Malaysian nation, one as an Islamic State and the other as a secular state,
all within the bosom of the Barisan Nasional?

But what is most serious and saddening is that after the “929
Declaration”, Keng Yaik and the Gerakan leadership have abandoned their
earlier stand that Malaysia is an secular state and adopted lock, stock and
barrel Mahathir’s declaration that Malaysia is an Islamic State.

The people of Malaysia, regardless of race, religion and political
beliefs, are entitled to an honest reply from Keng Yaik and the Gerakan
leadership on the fundamental issue as to whether Malaysia is or is not,
should or should not, be an Islamic State.

They should stop avoiding the issues
raised by the Gerakan think-tank in the letter to Malaysiakini and declare
whether they endorse or repudiate the shocking standpoints of SEDAR on
Islamic State, Chinese education and corruption.